iWonted, I Got It.

iWonted is a new e-commerce business selling hot, new, trendy items. The unusual, the quirky, the fashionable. You gotta go to iWonted. A few months back, they approached me with redesigning their brand because they liked my aesthetic and wanted to incorporate it into their e-commerce site.

This brand redesign was a little different from others that I’ve done: iWonted sells items that are based on trends. What this means, is that their inventory is always changing. It can be difficult to design a logo for a brand that doesn’t align with any specific industry. This time around I didn’t create a mood board, but opted instead to go straight to sketching.

/The First Impression

Before I continue with the process and show you the progress from the original logo above, to the finished logo below (like super below, like bottom of the page below, but don’t skip a head yet! The journey is the fun part), I’m going to offer a critique. Like with any critique, it is subjective. So here it goes.

In my first impression, I found the word mark tonally different from the icon. The word mark was round and light, very contemporary. The icon on the other hand was heavy, blocky, weighted. Also I felt it was a bit inconclusive: I saw the “i” and the “w”, but it could be interpreted as different building heights, different stereo volume levels, or simply cut out blocks. It wasn’t saying as much as it could, because it was saying too much.

/The First Step

After analyzing their logo, I wanted the tone to be masculine and contemporary. I asked them if they wanted to stay in similar lines with their current logo, and they were unsure. They said the sky’s the limit.

Anyone in any creative service understands that this is a double-edged sword. It is great to have creative freedom, but without initial parameters, creating a wide variety can prove pretty challenging. Ultimately, however, it is always rewarding.

So what you’re about to see is a hodge-podge of different aesthetics and tones. At this point, my focus wasn’t specifically on masculine or contemporary design, it was to get a sense of what the clients liked. Can you guess which ones they decided to go forward with?

iWonted – Second Round – First Draft

After an in-person meeting, they chose three designs to move forward with. I added in a fourth because I was really partial to one of them. Once we had narrowed the parameters together, I began to expand on the selected ones, to explore the concepts further. I do these expansions because they can take you to places that will surprise you.

iWonted – Second Round – Second Draft logo

After reviewing this next generation of designs, they chose their three favourites. From there, I quickly created digital renderings. Digital versions usually look and feel a little different from the hand drawn versions. At this phase, I also start to include type. The icon will often dictate the type that I should use. Once the type is selected, I’ll customize it to fit within the tone of the brand: for example, making the slabs a little thinner, making the bowl a little rounder or more oval, and even adding an additional detail, like icon 4 below.

iWonted – Second Round – Third Draft

Now at this point they settle on one that really speaks to them and I do my final expansions to see what else I can pull out of my hat.

iWonted – Second Round – Fourth Draft

You’re probably thinking ‘Holy- moley Jiali, that’s a lot of concepts and designs!’. And I completely agree. Every client is different. With some clients, I only have 2 rounds of drafts and bam! We’re done, like Ajé Skincare. And others, it’ll take up to 5 rounds, like Sudsatorium. It also depends on me. Sometimes, I get into these free flowing design moods and I can whip out something incredible, and other times, it’s like pulling teeth. It’s different with everyone and I’m very good at gauging how many revisions I can afford to do.

After this fourth draft, we solidified the icon and logo. There were a few small tweaks (thicker strokes on the icon, a more engaging font, etc) but we did it!

iWonted – New Logo

With any branding I do, it’s usually not just the logo. I of course did a few images for them, set up their site and prepped their email templates. I’ll be sharing all the information with you next week! I’ll update this post when it’s up.